The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

One global pandemic, multiple lockdowns, and never-ending strains have reshaped the world — the way we live, the way we socialize, and the way business is done. COVID-19 was indeed the biggest disruption to work as well as life in decades.

Productivity prior to the pandemic was a well-defined metric across companies. Some measured productivity by time, some by deliverables, some by revenue, and most by a combination of the three.

This post was originally published on Business.com.

Top sales managers don't just look for candidates when they need them — they keep in contact with potential team members to build an internal pipeline of interested and engaged salespeople.

The best products and services in the world don't hold up a company if no one buys them.

Most companies depend on salespeople to bridge the gap between production and purchase. When high-performing sellers leave, sales managers scramble to fill their roles. In the ensuing chaos, they usually hire the first competent person to walk through the door.

Your sales team determines the success or failure of your operation.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but if you're like other sales managers, you don’t start looking for new sales candidates until one of your salespeople leaves the company.

By then, it’s too late. You'll have to scramble to fill the role.

This chaos will often result in you rushing to find the right person or settling for someone who is just “good enough.” These hasty hiring decisions don't solve anything. You still need a great salesperson, and the person you just hired isn't likely to be that.

Every company strives to maximize its sales as much as possible. To do that you need to have a strong and competent sales team and a smooth sales process.

Given the current state of the economic and financial landscape, companies are also looking for ways to cut costs. For this reason, optimizing the sales process has become even more important.

When doing so, you have to consider two major aspects. Will you do it internally or externally? If you’ve chosen the former, then continue reading.

As a sales manager, it’s important that you continually take new courses of action to help your team generate more sales.

Here are six practical methods you should consider.

A person needs many skills and qualities to be successful at business, including good organization, communication, leadership, and negation.

Business acumen is another necessary skill for those who are driven to succeed. But what is it? And how can you develop it?

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about business acumen.

Nobody likes to feel used.

This is probably not a news flash, but salespeople don’t like to feel as though they're being used by their sales manager to hit their budget or bonus.

During an industry conference, I happened to be sitting next to two sales managers discussing their second-quarter budgets and how difficult it was going to be to hit them.

The manager doing most of the talking said to the other, “I just don’t know what I am going to do. Maybe I just need to get more bodies in here and get them out selling and hitting the streets. The folks I have in here right now just aren’t getting it done for me, and I don’t want to miss hitting my bonus in Q2.”

All sales managers know that it’s important to have a full staff of salespeople in order to hit your goals. But you know how risky and ineffective it is simply to hire anyone who can fog a mirror. It’s essential to hire only the right people. 

When searching for the right talents, skills, and experience, strong sales managers recognize that talent is primary.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published on Salesandmarketing.com.

If you’re a sales manager, you know this to be true: Having that tough conversation with a salesperson who isn’t meeting goals is never fun. Telling people they’re not meeting expectations and inspiring them to turn things around isn’t easy. In fact, most of the time, it’s downright uncomfortable. Alas, it is absolutely essential.

What does it take to transform this dreaded responsibility into a positive, fulfilling part of your day? It’s all about dialing down “telling” and ramping up “showing.”

No matter how good a product is, nobody will buy it if they have not heard about it. On top of that, sometimes it takes a skilled and informed presentation of a product for people to realize how much value it can bring to them. That is the job of the more than 13 million people who are employed in sales just in the United States!

Of course, the world of sales comes with its own challenges. One of the most common challenges that sales leaders work with is time management. Learning to manage this one area can greatly increase success and productivity.

But there is a reason that time management is one of the most common sales leaders' challenges. It can be difficult to figure out how to make it work for you. Read on to learn all about the time management techniques that can help you tackle this sales challenge!